Obits – I Blame You

Obits’ 7”, from Stint Records, “One Cross Apiece” b/w “Put It in Writing” was the glancing dinner bell making sure everyone got to the table on-time; the new LP “I Blame You” (Sub-Pop) is the hot home cooked meal. Obits new album comes with high expectations. Then again that comes with the territory for any new project, when you’ve amassed the following that frontman Rick Froberg (Drive Like Jehu , Hot Snakes, Pitchfork) and singer/guitarist Sohrab Habibion (Edsel) have gathered .

It’s pretty impressive when a group can slow down their meter, while incorporating elements of Blues, and still manage to bring an aggressive sound. Obits “I Blame You” sounds like the bastard child of a torrid love affair between the Brooklyn Indie scene of today, and the San Diego Surf Punk scene of 1980’s. This isn’t a band that sounds like anyone else, but you can hear that Obits has been influenced by the music of Drive Like Jehu, and Hot Snakes.

There’s a great dynamic that occurs on “I Blame You” courtesy of bassist Greg Simpson’s throwback classic rock style, and how it plays against Froberg’s punk influenced vocals. This is the type of album where you have to listen to it all the way through a few times before it really sinks it teeth into you. Songs like “Run”, “Light Sweet Crude”, and “Two-Headed Coin”, could easily carry an album on their own; they don’t have to on this LP. It seems that all the projects Rick Froberg gets involved with burn white hot. I hope Obits sticks around for a while.

Why use a bunch of cliché superlatives when a crude statement is more accurate? Obits “I Blame You” fucking rocks.

Obits - I Blame You, reviewed by Big Ben on 2009-03-07T16:48:33+00:00 rating 4.3 out of 5